Most newspapers vending machines on the market today are coin actuated and the insertion of a coin in the machine enables the prospective purchaser to open a door to gain access to the entire supply of newspapers within the machine. This type of vending machine has proven unsatisfactory because it places the entire supply of newspapers at the mercy of the purchaser, who sometimes removes more than the single copy of newspaper to which the deposit of coins entitles him.
Prior attempts have been made to overcome this problem by designing vending machines to dispense only a single copy of the newspaper in response to the insertion of coins in the machine. The scarcity of single copy newspaper vending machines in commercial use today is stark evidence of the failure of the prior art designs for single copy newspaper vending machines to satisfy the market needs.
One prior attempt to satisfactory dispense individual copies of newspaper is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,912,124 issued Oct. 14, 1975 to Dale F. Pinkerton. Pinkerton uses an upwardly and rearwardly inclined newspaper support platform on which the papers are placed in upright position with their folded ends resting on the platform. Insertion of a coin enables the perspective purchaser to rotate a crank which moves the platform rearwardly and allows the foremost newspaper to drop through the space created between the rearwardly moved platform and the front of the machine, from whence it is discharged through a dispensing outlet. The practical difficulty with the Pinkerton vending machine is that the dispensing of the newspaper depends on gravity movement of the newspaper along the inclined platform and it sometimes happens that the newspapers are misaligned on the platform to the extent they become jammed and do not slide freely down the inclined platform.
Other attempts to provide a satisfactory machine for dispensing individual copies of newspapers are discussed in columns 1 and 2 of the said Pinkerton patent, specifically U.S. Pat. Nos. 953,451 to P. Wesser, 1,057,971 to J. J. Marrs, 1,324,415 to F. Smith, 1,600,623 to Chesnut, et al., 1,702,925 to M. E. Ashe, 1,882,261 to J. G. Schofield, 2,220,175 to W. C. Rice, 2,263,040 to E. M. Kaltenbach, 2,510,197 to R. H. Summerfield, 2,168,422 to L. S. Watlington, 3,104,781 to E. E. Clift, and 3,425,596 to T. S. Marczak, et al. Applicant is also aware of U.S. Pat. Nos. 388,369 to G. D. Morse, et al. and 517,412 to A. F. Martel for dispensing individual copies of newspapers and of U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,865,895, 2,281,191, and 2,550,884 for dispensing other articles.
It will be apparent as the description of the present invention proceeds that it offers a novel mechanism for the individual vending of newspapers and at the same time provides for the trouble free and reliable vending of single copies of newspapers to an extent not heretofore known.